Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Review: Icons by Margaret Stohl

Your heart beats only with their permission.
Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.
Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.
She's different. She survived. Why?
When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.
Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.

I want to
rant so bad, but I’m trying to contain myself. Ok, here we go. I’m glad that
Stohl is trying to branch away from the Stohl-Garcia duo and the idea of this
book is breathtakingly awesome, however, sometimes things just don’t always work
out the way we want them to and this was exactly the case here. I didn’t fancy
this book and I probably will not continue with the sequel. Let me tell you
why.

“I am powerful because of who and what I am. Not because of who I am not.”

The book
starts out great. We have Dolores and her best friend Ro and I really enjoyed
their dynamic. They complement each other quite well and find solace in each
other. They are each other’s rocks. As the novel progresses, they begin to grow
apart though. Ro is doing everything in his power to keep them safe from the
government that is trying to capture them, but Dol’s poor choices and putting
trust in strangers rather than her best friend still manage to get them locked
up on an island with two other teens. I really liked the idea of the story, but
unfortunately, for me, it didn't live up to the awesome premise. What I’m trying to say
is that the execution wasn’t as good as I hoped it’d be. The world building was pretty good, though very complicated (and I still don't understand some of it), but the characters honestly ruined it for me.

I don’t
know how much it would have affected me if I had read a physical book or an
e-copy, but I listened to an audiobook and I was honestly confused about the
parts which were for the ambassador eyes only. Alsu, quite often, I felt extremely
creeped out by them. You know, the parts from the book? Speaking of the book, you have no idea how annoyed Dol
made me with her actions by giving the book away. You are told to not let the book out of your sight and
you give it up to a stranger without reading it first? *eyeroll* Also, her
voice and inner monologue were so similar to Ethan White’s which didn’t help
her case either.

Again, we
have a love triangle. Can a book not be without a love triangle? You can tell
right off the bat that Ro has feelings for Dol and all she has eyes for is Lucas.
Who, by the way, is a nasty little brat. He went rogue on every decision the
other three Icon Children made and acted like a darn fool all the way through.
His decisions made me roll my eyes and I’ll say that he and Dol deserve each
other. I’m shipping Ro and Tima since he deserves someone who isn’t Dol. Tima
became my favorite character, quite unexpectedly at that. I blame the dog. I’m a
dog person and she saved one. What can I say? I’m impressed.

I didn’t
hate this book, but I liked only tiny bits of it and it wasn’t enough for me to
want to pick up the sequel. For the sake of everyone, I hope it gets better and
perhaps, if people who gave Icons
less than three stars decide to give the sequel a go and convince me that it’s
worth continuing? Perhaps I’ll reconsider, but for now, I’m done with this
series. I hope you guys had better luck with it though. PS. It doesn’t take
anything away from the book nor does it affect my opinion on the plot and the
characters, but I liked the original pink cover way better.Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

12 comments:

It's been a while but I still remember Sam's review for this one. I knew then that I'd never get to read this one, but honestly abput those freaking love triangles! Aren't we so over that? Now I need to rant about that. I do get that it's amazing way to add some drama into your story but c'mon! There are other ways, like some new worlds and creatures? Gosh, it truly pisses me off. End of rant. I'm so sorry you didn't enjoy this one and I hope your next read is amazing. Great review Siiri :)

I'm a dog person too Siiri, so Tima just might be my favorite character as well! Especially given the fact that Dol and Lucas both earned themselves some serious eye rolls from you. Most of the reactions to this one have been pretty lukewarm, so I'm going to take a pass on it. There are so many books I'm DYING to read, and the characters in this one just sound like their a bit too frustrating for me to want to pick this up. Thanks for your thoughts!!!!

Why? Why did it have to be this way? Dol sounds ridiculously infuriating and Lucas not much better. And why the love triangle? Again? I was hoping for this to be a decent read, because that premise really does sound absolutely awesome, but I can just imagine myself rolling my eyes as well at what happens in here. The worldbuilding and start of the book sound somewhat redeeming, but it seems not enough to mean very much in the book as a whole - and characters really are important. I need to be able to at least connect to the protagonist. I'm sorry this was so disappointing for you, Siiri, though thank you for the amazing review! :)

Ehhh not sure I would like this one. I think a lot of the stuff that bothered you would bother me as well. It sounds like I would be very frustrated with the character's actions. Thanks for sharing, Siiri!

It's sad when you can see the potential in a story, but the actual execution of the book doesn't live up to your hopes. With an annoying heroine and a dreaded love triangle, I am better off skipping this one. I trust your opinion, so I'm glad you read this first so I can strike it from my list. :)

I was hoping this one would be good because I liked the premise too. I'm sad to see it didn't execute. I think I'm still willing to try it, but I won't be looking forward to the love triangle. Thanks for the review!

Yeah, I'll be ignoring this one, thanks! I hate it when you like ASPECTS, but aspects aren't enough to carry the whole book and make you continue reading usually. Ugh, love triangles. And I know they add the lesser guy for a reason so you can root for another (hopefully he isn't hot either), but I laughed when you said he was a brat. I hate when guys are. Sorry this wasn't great!

I'm having a hard time with YA or even dystopian reads right now and the thought of a trilogy give me hives, so this isn't something I would've picked up even without seeing your review, Siiri. Sorry this didn't work out for you, but I can see why. It sounds like I'd want to strangle Dol if I read this and then a love triangle on top of everything else?!! No, just no! I am sooooo over love triangles, just like you! I'm even wondering if I should pick up the last Shatter Me novel because of the love triangle. I'm going to be ticked with whoever Juliette chooses because I like both of them. :( Great honest review, Siiri! :)

You should've ranted a bit, I would've loved that! lol Personally, I don't think this is for me. I can't even root for a person who trusts stranger, seriously!?! And then there's the love triangle, which I think should be banned from YA for it's overuse and repetitiveness! Thanks for the review, Siiri :)

Everyone I know didn't like this book. Le sigh. I haven't read the Beautiful Creatures series so this would be my first book of Kami Garcia, whenever I do get to read it. But I'm mostly feeling like I should get away from it. Too bad it's a series. Tsk.

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